Servant

Servant by P.T.Chandapilla

This is a very profound book that I am reading and it has brought back reminders and new insights that are very challenging, extraordinary and bible (John 13) based. I have pulled out some pointers to help us look to Jesus’ example and re-evaluate our lives to help us model after our Saviour.

An excerpt in ‘Foreword’ by C V Matthew from Union Biblical Seminary, Pune, India says this:

‘This book is disturbing, especially to those in the world of Christian leadership.............Christian servanthood is a call to stand at the end of the line, to be a slave with no rights, to be poor, to be considered a failure, and finally to die an insignificant death if not ignoble.’


By Author P.T.Chandapilla a little edition by me

One of the weaknesses of the church today is her lack of understanding of Christian servanthood as taught and demonstrated by the Lord Jesus. The outstanding example in the life of the Lord Jesus in John 13 is the demonstration and explanation which Jesus gave. This action of the Lord Jesus was not called forth out of a sense of duty nor because of a need that had to be met. It was the ultimate expression of His love for His fellow workers, and a closing reality of His visible and eternal relationship with them. It was love for the unlovely and unlovable. These disciples were weak and often unlovable; yet He loved them to the end. That is what makes a Christian servant. He is a true slave, one who loves to the end and dies loving.

The tragedy of Golgotha is that the game the Devil knew and moved would end in his favour. It did end in his favour and it seemed to be the final defeat of the mission of the Lord Jesus after 33 years of consistent ministry. However, paradoxically, the defeat ended with Easter. This was also a moment of personal failure for the Lord Jesus in Judas, son of Simon, whom Jesus loved very much. He was betrayed by one whom He loved.

Jesus could be what He was, because He knew His genesis and His destiny. He knew His attributes and abilities, given to Him as the Creator, and as the Only Begotten Son of God. He knew His past, His present, His future-all these were fully before Him. In this is the triumph of Christian servanthood; to know yourself as belonging to the Kingdom, when all else breaks to pieces. It is not a setting of weakness but a setting of essential personal strength.

Until we have grasped what Christian servanthood is, how can we concern ourselves about Christian leadership? To be a leader without humility in service is the world’s standard.

Christian servanthood takes initiative to do the needful.
Christian servanthood means doing that which one is not assigned to do.
Christian servanthood has no glamour, it is a despised work, to go down the rung of a ladder of power. The status symbols and equipment of servanthood are a towel and a basin at home.

`In John 13, Jesus did not only take the place of a slave, He did the work of a slave. Christian servanthood is not talk, mere discussion, but it is labour and work. Christian servanthood in action is labour, it is work, it is getting on all fours on the floor, it is the work of a slave. In John 13:8, The Lord Jesus as the One who serves even overcame resistance to service. It will be the closest to us in fellowship and those who know us well who bring resistance to our servanthood. For example, a Godly mother refusing her daughter from going to the missions field. Just as Jesus overcame that resistance (from Peter) to serve, Christian servanthood requires overcoming that resistance.

Moreover, Jesus served His enemy (Judas, His betrayer) who meant Him harm. Christian servanthood is not an easy walkover. Because one becomes a servant let us not think that all over the world Christian fellowship will do the same!

Our call is to follow Jesus and be prepared to go to any extent in practising this kind of servanthood. It is something quite different from the world’s perspective of service. The world has nothing akin to the examples of servanthood found in the Christian Gospels. In John 13:14, Jesus commanded the disciples to serve one another. The work of a slave or Christian servant is not an option but a condition for the disciples of Jesus. This call to servanthood is tested first and foremost by conduct and behaviour among fellow disciples and fellow servants.



There is a setting in the Christian world where this message of servanthood is needed. Christian servanthood is an area that needs urgent teaching and training by practice and precepts. This is a lesson that we will learn only from experience and this is what is seen exemplified greatly in the life of Jesus Christ. True learning, however, comes from practising and exercising.


Watch out for Part II